Friday, December 16, 2011

Fade the Week Friday

I know I need a pick me up after this week. How about you?

Market Observations
Overall it was a week that was lacking in any real conviction. Most rally were tepid and also were faded for the most part. Between yesterday and today another credit agency downgrade parade made the rounds and things reversed in today's session violently.

That said, there are some pockets of promise. I am still long Amazon (AMZN) which has confirmed the hammer print on Friday. Yesterday I added a small position in Kinross Gold (KGC) (noted in 12631 trading room) which held up today as well. The best spin going forward I can think of is that just about all the downgrades are in. All the bad news has been hammered into the collective heads of everyone. Many have called it a day and moved on for the holidays. Perhaps this is the end of the "shocker" phase. Chart wise, single names are better looking that the indices but I would point out one small thing that may be nothing:

No move up since August has begun in such small steps. It has usually been monster jumps. Is this anything important? I am not sure, just noting the difference.

Anonymous
I don't want to spend much time on this. I judge content by the quality of the work and what I gain from it. I don't mind if I don't know a writers real name or what they look like. I have my own reasons for seeking to keep those things to myself. In any case, for the holiday season I will be using one of my favorite pictures of me as my new avatar on the blog and on Twitter. Long time readers have seen it before. The picture is of me fishing at the Quabbin Reservoir, and no it's still not a clear on shot!

Friday Night Entertainment
Some items to interest you and get the weekend off right.

Operation Plumbbob and Space Travel(Note: Clearly any person of sound mind is against and aghast at the nuclear testing done by the United States in the 1950's-1960's and all the contamination it resulted in. It is still historical record and in that vein I discuss it here.)

Operation Plumbbob was a series of nuclear tests in 1957. One of the more exotic angles of the testing was using a nuclear detonation to shoot a 2000 pound metal plate out into space:

Before the test, experimental designer Dr. Brownlee had performed a highly approximate calculation that suggested that the nuclear explosion, combined with the specific design of the shaft, would accelerate the plate to six times escape velocity. The plate was never found, but Dr. Brownlee believes that the plate never left the atmosphere (it may even have been vaporized by compression heating of the atmosphere due to its high speed).

Ablation effects can be minimised using lubricants and the entire idea was incorporated into Project Orion, which in theory could travel interplanetary distances much faster than anything in existence today.

I have a fawn pug dog (Norman, he is 10 years old) and I knew of black pugs, but all white pugs? I had no idea:

Film Clips
Save Netflix and stream some videos!

Guilty pleasure, I love the film "Cannonball Run". It rocks, it's fun, I love it. Here is the final 13 minutes and there is too much fun stuff, cameo's, and comedy to recount:

I have featured this before, but with all the new viewers it's a must see. The Library scene from the Bradbury classic "Something Wicked this Way Comes". If you don't want to watch the whole thing, go to the 4:00 minute mark on:

Rock Blogging
Some tunes to start you on the right path for the weekend.

Loyal reader Watchtower (years!) was looking for some Judas Priest and "Hot Rockin" and I do so love metal:

Nice pick.

Twitter handle @CaseyLConley was working to be the 400th follower of mine and came away 1 away! Her song pick, "Open Book" by Cake:

I like that tune.

Number 400 was by @nascar_29er_fan and he was looking for Kid Rock's "Born Free":

I love metal, but I love plenty of country and bluegrass. A walking paradox. Anyway, please take a look at The Highwaymen with their signature song:

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